Financial Services

Nama to generate surplus of nearly €5bn, McGrath says

Agency ‘facilitated the delivery of about 34,000 residential units’ and ‘regeneration of Dublin docklands’

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath speaks to the media following publication of the latest five-year review of Nama. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins

Martin Wall
Wed Mar 6 2024 - 13:42

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is on track to generate a surplus of at least €4.9 billion over its lifetime by the end of 2025, the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has said.

He said the agency had facilitated the delivery of 34,000 residential units including almost 3,000 social homes.

Mr McGrath was speaking after the publication of the latest Nama five-year review, which “clearly shows the progress that Nama has made across its mandate as it progresses into the final stages of winding down”.

By the end of 2023, Nama generated €47.7 billion cash from its acquired portfolio and has reduced the total carrying value of its loan portfolio to €450 million.

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Nama was set up nearly 15 years ago as part of the State’s response to the banking crisis in 2008. It acquired 11,500 loans from five financial institutions comprising about 60,000 properties. The loans had a par value at the time of €74 billion while their market value was about €26 billion.

Mr McGrath said Nama was taking steps towards an orderly wind down by the end of next year. But he said there may be some residual Nama activity at the end of that period and that it was proposed that this would be transferred to a new resolution unit resourced by the National Treasury Management Agency.

The Minister said new legislation would be needed to give effect to these plans.

Mr McGrath also said the special liquidation of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was on track to “substantially conclude in 2024″. IBRC was the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the State-owned banking institutions Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

“This strong commercial performance has exceeded expectations and Nama’s success has been augmented by the agency’s considerable achievements in relation to its supplemental objectives. Moreover, Nama made a big and long-lasting contribution to the regeneration of Dublin docklands through the delivery of extensive new commercial and residential space,” the Minister added.

Martin Wall

Martin Wall

Martin Wall is the former Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times. He was previously industry correspondent

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